A tourist who was on her dream holiday had her legs ripped off by a boat propeller when she fell into the water – but it’s not the first tragedy her family have faced
The family of a young woman whose legs were ripped off in a freak boat accident are facing their second life-altering tragedy, nine years after their son was left paraplegic.
Hannah Smith, 22, made headlines around the world last week when the holiday she was on with her best friend took a horrific turn. Hannah, who was celebrating graduating with top honours for her arts degree at Miles College, Alabama, fell into the water while her pontoon boat was docking, and was dragged under the propellors.
After being hauled out of a “pool of blood” by two fellow passengers, Hannah was rushed to a local hospital in the Bahamas then later airlifted to the US, where she’s undergone eight surgeries at a hospital in Miami. Her worried family, parents Tracy and Marvin, sisters Abigail and Rachel, and brother Joseph are now praying for her to pull through after losing her legs.
And with mounting medical bills that the family will have to pay, a GoFundMe page has been set up to help the Smiths meet the costs – likely to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
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But it’s not the first time the family have had to face tragedy. Nine years ago, their son Joseph was left quadriplegic when he came off his motorcycle in a horror crash.
“Tracy and I have a good idea of where things are headed. His medical bills were enormous,” dad Marvin recalled.
Joseph, now 30, was just 21 when the accident happened, and was devastated to hear his baby sister had gone through a similar near-death experience.
“It was hard for him to hear. When he heard about it, it really bothered him,” says mum Tracy. “Because every big brother wants to protect his sister.”
But a silver lining to the pain they’re facing is that Joseph has a new role to play as Hannah slowly recovers from her injuries. “None of us can physically [relate to what Hannah has gone through], but he’s able to encourage her and just remind us of some of the things that he has been through,” Tracy added.
“And so he is going to have a much better insight into some of things that she is going to experience than we will.”
While Hannah has a “long journey” of recovery ahead of her, her parents can’t believe she survived the horror accident. “I feel like we really witnessed a miracle because we could have very well been planning a funeral,” says Marvin starkly. “Thank God that we’re still able to talk to our daughter.
“That’s what we talk to her about every day when she has the negative moments. We all band around her. We had a moment yesterday, we banded around her and we told her, ‘this is a miracle, and you are a miracle.’
“People look at miracles like it’s something mystical or majestical, but… I felt like God was giving us the answer to our prayers, through Hannah talking to us.”
You can donate to Hannah’s GoFundMe by visiting www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/tourist-22-fighting-life-after-35253686.